


hyaku nana-ju san

by idaate



Category: Dangan Ronpa, Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe, Happy Ending, M/M, this is for the valentines day gift exchange !!, tho it ends on white day so yknow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-14
Updated: 2017-03-14
Packaged: 2018-10-04 15:57:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10282604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idaate/pseuds/idaate
Summary: It is one hundred and seventy three days into the online death game when Hajime first meets Nagito Komaeda.Written for the drvalentines gift exchange, for Magi.





	

It is one hundred and seventy three days into the game when Hajime first meets Nagito Komaeda.

Hajime’s intent on trying to level up by the end of the night, his experience bar  _ painfully  _ close to allowing him to gain potential new skills and higher stats, and in a world where that’s quite literally all that really matters and could be the difference between life and having your brain fried to a crisp, that’s quite a plus. Hajime doesn’t want his brain fried. He doesn’t want  _ anyone’s  _ brain fried, frankly,

That’s why he can’t let anyone die when he is painfully able to prevent its happening.

_ That’s  _ why when he sees some idiot with a health bar in the red not even  _ flinching _ when a low level boar charges towards him, he curses and mutters ‘not this shit again’ before slashing the boar from the belly up.

“What the  _ hell  _ were you thinking?!” He spins around, eyes narrowed and not even paying attention to the little ‘leveled up!’ jingle that rings through the air. “Do you  _ want  _ to die?!”

The white haired boy stares and stares and stares until it gets far too creepy and Hinata cracks open a health potion to get his health bar up. “I’m Hajime Hinata. What’s your name?” He finally sighs.

“Oh!” The boy smiles. “It’s Komaeda! Nagito Komaeda.” He sticks out a hand. “Thank you for saving my life! It seems that I must have inexplicably good luck to be saved by such a cute boy.”

Hinata sputters. 

 

.

 

Hinata tries to ditch Komaeda from the get-go, asking him what floor he lived on and what town he was a part of and what guild he belonged to. Komaeda responds with nothing, instead grinning cheekily and shrugging and it  _ infuriates  _ Hinata to such an extent but after clenching his fists and counting to ten he says ‘alright, okay’ and stops trying to get Komaeda home. He instead returns to his guild by the end of the night, as he had  _ originally  _ planned. But this time, Komaeda was in tow, which was  _ not  _ originally planned.

“Look who the cat dragged in~!” Ouma hums as Hinata steps into the room of the DICE guild, the ‘supreme leader’, as he dubbed himself, sitting triumphantly on Saihara’s lap at the head of the long, wooden table. Saihara himself didn’t seem to mind too particularly much about the situation, instead glancing up at Hinata and Komaeda in mild curiosity. There are several other people in the room - Akane, Maki, and Kaede were discussing a plan to scout out one of the higher levels tomorrow, and Chiaki was sorting through her inventory - but for the most part, it was fairly empty.

“Oh! Did you find an adventuring partner?” Saihara quirks an eyebrow.

“I did not.” Hinata huffs and opens up his inventory, placing several rabbits and moles on the table. “This idiot almost got himself killed by a level  _ seven  _ boar, and I had to save his ass. His name is Komaeda.”

Akane takes one glance at Hinata’s catch and lets out a squeal of excitement, grabbing the creatures by the tale and rushing over to the kitchen where Teruteru inevitably awaited. Why the boy consistently put time and effort into a skill that inevitably wasn’t much use in a game where survival was fighting purely on fighting ability, Hinata would never know. He was getting fed, though, so it’s not like he was complaining.

Nanami, from her position next to Ouma, looks up in mild interest. “A level seven?” She drawls. “I’d expect a minimum of...like...level forty if we’re pushing it, but level fifty-five more realistically. Yeah.”

Komaeda laughs guiltily. “What can I say? My wits aren’t what they used to be.” He hums. “Though perhaps they weren’t anything in the first place? Heh.”

The girl stares at Komaeda for a solid minute before sighing and returning to her own screen. The small catlike familiar on her shoulder nuzzles her cheek, and she scratches its neck in return.

“Do you want to join DICE?” Ouma hums, getting up from Saihara’s lap, and Komaeda startles a bit.

“He can’t join!” Hinata protests. “I literally  _ just  _ met him, and we can’t go picking people off the streets. DICE is a guild where we all benefit from each other, not just...get people who almost get killed by a level seven mob.”

Ouma stares at him with his dumb, dumb,  _ dumb  _ grin and Hinata wonders how the kid could be such a genius leader. “Besides,” Hinata half-pleads, “DICE is one of the strongest - if not  _ the  _ strongest - guilds here. We’re not a charity case.”

The leader taps his chin. “I dunno, Komaeda-chan has this  _ suuuper  _ good vibe to him, you know?”

“Oh, I don’t think I deserve to be in group with such talented individuals as yourselves.” Komaeda murmurs in quiet agreement. Hinata motions.

“See?”

Ouma hums. “Mmm, Komaeda-chan? Can you do me a small favor?”

“Of course.”

“Can I look at your stats? Pretty pleeaaase?”

Komaeda nods hurriedly and opens up his profile as Ouma skips over, glancing over the log.

“Hmm, your stats are kinda shit even though you’re such a high-- Oh!” A pause. “ _ Oh!” _

Ouma inhales sharply, and everyone in the room looks up in interest. Even Maki and Kaede, who had been deep in their own conversation, pay attention. Hinata clears his throat awkwardly.

“Well? What is it?”

Ouma’s giggling wildly. “His luck stat is the highest I’ve ever seen - the highest I’ll  _ ever  _ see! Even higher than Naegi-chan’s!”

Hinata marches on over to take a look for himself.

The numbers ‘999’ sit prettily next to the word ‘LUCK’, and Komaeda laughs his infuriatingly guilty laugh.

 

.

 

“And! And! Komaeda-kun was all like--” Akane makes a dramatic sound effect, accompanied by an equally dramatic hand gesture. “Y’know?! His luck stat gave hima huge advantage and let him hit the ogre  _ square in the head!  _ Even when it shouldn’t have!”

“Oh. I get it. It’s like ‘David and Goliath’.” Chiaki snaps her fingers together. “Uhm...kind of late on that bit. Sorry.”

“It was  _ so cool.”  _ Akane continues. “Even though it was just a scouting mission with Chiaki-chan, Komaeda-kun, and Hinata-kun, we  _ rocked the house.  _ Especially Komaeda-kun! I did  _ not  _ expect your luck stat to be such a big help.” She pats Komaeda’s arm, who blushes.

“I...I wasn’t  _ that  _ good, guys.” He murmurs, and glances over at Hinata, who stares.

Nanami nods in subtle agreement, playing with the catlike creature that sat on her shoulder. “Mmm...he was pretty cool.” She murmurs.

“I’m just  _ trash--”  _ Komaeda protests, but Kaede shushes him.

“Uh, no way!” She pulls him in for a big hug. “No way I’m letting you call yourself trash! In fact--” She taps her chin. “Guess what! I’m going on a mission with you and Harukawa-san next.”

“I’ll go as well.” Hinata states, and Komaeda starts in surprise. “What? I saved your ass, I’m gonna stick by it.”

 

.

 

“Ah, Hinata-kun!”

Hinata looks up, wiping the sweat from his brow. One of his weapons had been nearing a breaking point, and since he could definitely level up when it came to the art of forging weapons. Ouma made jokes all the time about how  _ he  _ was the supreme forger, but everyone knew that his ‘master forgery’ was simply full of lies.

“What is it?” He places the weapon down momentarily and Komaeda stops short, face aflush but whether it was from fear or the heat of the forge, Hinata wasn’t sure.

“I just thought that...perhaps.” Komaeda’s breath catches nervously as Hinata picks the weapon back up. “That...perhaps we could hang out?”

Hinata slams a hammer down against the hot metal, and Komaeda flinches. “Why’d you think that?”

Komaeda does not respond immediately, and the banging of Hinata’s hammer fills the silence. “I thought that...that you’d be nice enough to hang out with...with trash.”

Hinata nearly hammers his own hand.  _ “What?” _

“You know! Trash like me.” Komaeda sputters. “Uhm, sorry. Sorry. Those were really bad assumptions of me. I don’t know why I thought anything changed between us.”

Muttering one final ‘sorry’, Komaeda runs away from the scene and Hinata is left with the hammer resting in the palm of his hand, a painful weight.

He just didn’t understand Komaeda, Hinata resolves, and goes back to trying to level up his skills.

 

.

 

“Harukawa-san could have  _ died!”  _

Hinata has never seen Kaede this upset before, her face red with anger and contrasting painfully with the light blush that usually graces her cheeks. Komaeda himself says nothing, head bent over in a shame that he knows he deserves. They  _ all  _ know he deserves this.

Kaede runs her hands through her hair, obviously  _ trying  _ to keep her calm but failing miserably for once in her life. “Alright. Whatever. So you’ve got your luck stat maxed out when we didn’t even know maxing stats out was possible. So you’re a big shot.  _ Whatever.  _ But that should give you no right--  _ no right--” _

She breathes in shakily, searching for the right words. “No right to leave her alone like that. No right to leave her alone like that just to save that dog.” Komaeda murmurs, and Kaede nods firmly.

“Exactly. Especially when her health was in red.”

“Especially when her health was in red.”

Kaede chews on the inside of her lip and sighs. “You are so,  _ so  _ lucky that Ouma-san wants to keep you around ‘cause otherwise, I would be petitioning that you be kicked out of DICE. And you know what?”

She leans so close to Komaeda’s face that had Hinata not known exactly how gay the both of them were and how Kaede would kill Komaeda given the chance, he might’ve said that she would kiss him. “What do I know.” Komaeda says, and it’s a  _ statement,  _ not a question.

“A good portion, if not all the other members of DICE, are vying for you to be kicked out as well.”

 

.

 

“I don’t want you to be kicked, if...if that’s worth anything.”

Komaeda blinks, midway through washing his hands in the kitchen. “Pardon?”

“I don’t want you to leave DICE.” Hinata repeats, firmer this time. “Akamatsu-san claimed that everyone wanted you to be kicked from DICE, but that isn’t true, because  _ I  _ don’t want you to be kicked from DICE. If that’s worth anything to you.” He scratches his chin. “You’re...you’re a person I’ve grown to enjoy spending time with. Sorry if that’s kind of. Awkward for me to say.”

Komaeda’s face flushes such a deep, deep pink and Hinata isn’t quite sure how to react.

“I-I dunno, you can, like,  _ say  _ something right now or--”

“Oh! Thank you!” Komaeda finally bursts. “I am so,  _ so  _ honored that you would enjoy spending time with a piece of trash like me!”

Komaeda grabs Hinata’s hands with his own still damp ones and kisses them before walking off, humming happily.

Hinata does not understand why his face turns such a bright, burning red and why his heart skips several beats.

 

.

 

“I want Komaeda-chan to go fight the boss with you five~!”

Hinata stands up, and the wooden table shakes. Saihara looks up in mild alarm, while Kaede bites her lip and Maki simply plays with a strand of her long, thick hair. Chiaki doesn’t even react in the first place, staring at the table. 

“I refuse.” Hinata spits, and Ouma hums.

“Oh? Is that so?” He sighs. “I mean, I don’t  _ really  _ care what  _ you  _ say on the matter. Komaeda-chan has already agreed to my request, as has Saihara-chan!”

“Saihara-kun will agree to anything you say.” Hinata points out, and Ouma chuckles as Saihara’s face flushes red.

“So? He still agreed with me.” Ouma rocks back on his chair, neck leaning back to look at the ceiling. “Oh! And so does Chiaki-chan!”

Everyone stares at Chiaki, who grows a bit smaller in her chair.

“I don’t know if this is the wisest idea.” Hinata insists. “He...you  _ know  _ what happened in the last mission. I don’t know if he’s ready for another mission, let alone one as extreme as  _ this. _ ”

“I don’t trust him.” Kaede adds, and Maki nods in agreement. Ouma shrugs.

“I guess you’ll have to deal with it, then. You shouldn’t have much to worry about, though - I heard that some people already test-battled the boss and managed to knock out a major part of its HP without even meaning to! If filthy casuals who didn’t wanna fight the boss did well, then  _ we  _ can certainly do excellently.” Ouma bangs his fist on the table. “Goooo DICE!”

The table is silent.

 

.

 

“You know...”

Hinata looks up from his bed, reading the latest newsletter. “Go on.” He prompts.

“...no, nevermind, it was nothing.” Komaeda’s on the floor, his face out of Hinata’s sight as he’s wrapped up in numerous blankets.

Hinata sighs exasperatedly and closes the newsletter. “Well, you can’t just leave me hanging like  _ that.”  _ He groans. “Finish that sentence, please.”

There is a long, drawn out pause - the one Komaeda always has, whenever he’s taking a long time to think - and then he murmurs “I wish we could live in this game forever.”

Hinata frowns. “Pardon?”

“It’s...it’s just.” Komaeda breathes. “In the real world, I...I was in a terrible car accident. Actually, uhm...I’m blind. And I’ve lost all sensation in my legs. So I can’t walk. That’s why I don’t want to wake up, because in this world I can  _ see  _ and everything and I...I don’t know why, maybe it’s because the things that happened to me were things I weren’t born with, and my brain still remembers how to see and walk and...whatever.”

Hinata is silent.

“I-I shouldn’t be upset, though!” Komaeda hurriedly adds. “I got out of the situation better than my parents did, after all. They died. So did my dog. He died too. Th-that’s why I couldn’t--” His breath catches, but Hinata fills in the blanks.

“Couldn’t let that dog die?”

“Y-yeah. Even though it was just a fictional piece of data, and Harumaki-san was  _ real.”  _ Komaeda sounds like he has a really bad cold. “God, isn’t that pathetic? Aren’t  _ I  _ pathetic?”

“...no, Komaeda-san.”

Komaeda’s breath catches.

“Please, don’t call yourself pathetic. You’re not pathetic. Not in the slightest.”

“...whatever you say, Hinata-kun.” 

There is a rustling of blankets, and Komaeda’s breath evens out, indicating that he’s fallen asleep. After a few moments, Hinata lays down as well.

 

.

 

Chiaki’s paralyzed, Kaede’s desperately trying to heal everyone and Hinata concludes that whoever said this boss was going to be easy was a liar.

Oh, right, it was Ouma who said the boss was going to be easy. Never mind, then.

The boss has timed attacks, they realized that pretty early on and  _ thought  _ that that would make their assault all the easier. They were terribly wrong, of course - the attack happened in such a way that it had a lingering effect. If you managed to avoid the actual HP damaging part of the attack, there’s an aftereffect that causes severe paralysis, preventing you from moving until the last instant before the next attack, leaving them absolutely no way to retaliate as they have to leap out of the way.

In other words, they’re screwed.

(Unless--)

Hinata plays with the idea in his mind, biting his lip before nodding firmly to himself and glancing behind him at Komaeda, who was struggling nonetheless.

“Komaeda-kun!” He screams over the uproar, who glances up at him.

“Yeah?”

“I need--” The paralysis makes it  _ hurt  _ to speak, but he grits his teeth. “I need you to trust me here. I’m...I’m going to go in during the attack, and it’s going to consistently drain away at my health. I need you to throw some health potions at me, ‘cause you have the best chance of making them hit me.”

Komaeda stares. “I-I don’t have enough for you to last--”

“I  _ know  _ that.” Hinata grits his teeth. “This is supposed to be a dramatic sacrifice, or whatever--”

“Hinata-kun!” Komaeda’s eyes widen. “You can’t do that!”

“Oh? And what other plan do you have?” Hinata scowls.

Komaeda does not respond.

“Well, I’m going to jump at the next interval whether you like it or not, so you can choose to let my sacrifice be in vain or not. It’s up to you.” Hinata bites the words out and looks away from the other boy’s protests. 

The time comes, and Hinata leaps forward, closing his eyes and praying to whatever God is up there that this will get him some bonus points when he makes his way up to heaven.

Whizzing by his ear goes a fire-boosted pebble, hitting the boss squarely in the head and making it dissolve into a thousand pieces.

Hinata lands safely on his feet and stares.

 

.

 

It’s one of those rare moments where the so-called god of their digital world decides to grace the world with a light shower. It’s not often that such drastic weather changes happen, since apparently it’s a ‘pain to program’ or whatever but nonetheless, Hinata enjoys them when they so happen. Sitting by the windowpanes and watching the raindrops hit the glass with tiny ‘plips’ before dissolving into digital nothingness is pleasant, after al.

What he does not enjoy, however, is when he can’t find Komaeda during the rain.

The boy isn’t located in his room, and after a quick search around the guild, he discovers that no one else has seen him. Ouma confirms that Komaeda hadn’t reported any sort of outing, and Hinata’s mind leaps from ‘he’s just training’ to ‘oh shit shit where is he where is here  _ where is he’. _

And he finds him.

He finds him, standing on the cliff against the sky with an umbrella in his limp arm by his side and he’s  _ sprinting  _ towards the boy, breath catching nervously as he tackles Komaeda to the ground, causing the both of them to go tumbling, tumbling, tumbling down the grassy hill and letting them rest peacefully at the bottom. They’re breathing heavily, and Komaeda stares in mild shock at the boy on top of him.

“Hinata-kun?” He murmurs, and Hinata’s eyes grow blurry.

“You  _ idiot.”  _ He chokes. “What the  _ hell  _ were you thinking?! Why did you think it was a good idea to go over there, to  _ stand  _ there and just--”

“Hinata-kun--”

“Do you  _ know  _ how much I’d miss you if you just died?” Hinata screams. “How  _ fucking selfish  _ do you have to be?! You’re-- you’re not allowed to just go and  _ leave me like that,  _ you  _ can’t  _ just leave me like that, you can’t just go and kill--”

“Hinata-kun!”

Hinata falls silent.

“I wasn’t going to jump.” Komaeda murmurs. “I was just…”

“Just  _ what?” _

“Just admiring the view.”

Hinata scoffs. “I call bullshit.”

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“Because…” Hinata bites his lip, and Komaeda smiles softly.

“I’m not lying to you. I despise liars, actually.”

“...promise?”

“Promise.” A pause. “Uhm, Hinata-kun, do you mind getting off me?”

“O-oh!” Hinata scrambles off of Komaeda, allowing the boy to sit up, white hair damp and covered in grass. “Sorry.”

“It’s no problem.”

They sit there for a while, letting the rain pour on top of their heads for far too long until Komaeda leans over and  _ kisses  _ Hinata. 

And Hinata is glad that the rain washed away the salt on his face.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave comments and kudos if you enjoyed!


End file.
